Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c12: Chapter Seven: The Ayurvedic Theory of the Wind and Greek Pneumatism

The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c12

Language
English

Contents

Chapter Seven: The Ayurvedic Theory of the Wind and Greek Pneumatism

c12.2

THE texts whereby the three oldest Indian manuals of medicine teach that all motor activity inside the organism comes from an internal organic breath identical to the atmospheric wind are in close accord amongst themselves. On this point the doctrine of Āyurveda is particularly clear and definite. A similar physiological concept of the wind also exists in Greek medicine, although it is not equally clearly admitted there. A. Götze has observed that the Hippocratic text *Peri Phuson* (The Winds), makes one think of the great rôle played by the concept of breath in Indian thought of the period of the Brāhmaṇas and he had no doubt that the Greek work had been under oriental influence.¹ The question of this influence can be definitely decided by a simple *rapprochement* but the analogy noted by Götze is evident¹ and the *Peri Phuson* concords even with those of the texts of classical medicine, particularly with those which are said to belong to the school of Ātreya Punarvasu.

c12.3

¹ Persische Weisheit in griechischem Gewande, in *Zeit. fur. Ind. und Ir.*, II, 1903, pp. 84-5. Similarly, although more doubtfully, A.B. Keith, *The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upaniṣads*, in Harvard Or. Ser., Vol. XXXII, Cambridge (Mass.) 1925, p. 602

c12.4

Of the two texts which claim to report the very words of Ātreya concerning the wind, the more important is of the *Caraka-saṃhitā*. The one of the *Bhela-saṃhitā* which has reached us in a single manuscript is, at places, considerably altered. This comparison, nevertheless, suffices to show that the ideas presented on either side go back to a common source older than both the texts. The *Suśruta-saṃhitā* usefully completes in details the enunciations of Caraka and Bhela.

Caraka, Sutrasthana, XII

c12.s1.1

² The editions referred to are abbreviated as follows:

c12.s1.2

[1] “We are now going to explain the chapter relating to functions and disorders¹ of the Wind”. [2], says the blessed Ātreya. [3] Conference of Ṛṣis: Desirous of knowing the opinions of one another regarding the knowledge of the functions and disorders of the wind, the great ṛṣis sat together and asked one another, “Which property has the wind? What excites

c12.s1.3

N.=Narendranath Śāstrin, Lahore, 1929, with Vyākhyā (Ayurveda-dīpikā) of Cakrapāṇidatta (Cakr.); J.=Jīvananda Vidyasagara, Calcutta, 1896; Ś.=Śaṃkara Śāstrin, Bombay, no date; K.=Khemraj Srīkṛṣṇadāsa, Bombay, 1898, with Hindi translation by Pandit Mihiracandra; H.=Harinath Sarkar, Calcutta, no date(towards 1880),with the Vyākhyā of Cakrapāṇidatta almost rigorously identical with that of N. of which it can be the model; G¹.=Gaṅgādhara with the Vyākhyā (Jalpa-kalpataru) of the same, Calcutta, 1868-1871, or G2; re-edited by Narendranath Sengupta and Balaicandra Sengupta, Calcutta, 1928; the text of Gaṅgādhara and that of more or less similar editions is without any authority with regard to the text commented by Cakrapāṇidatta, in view of arbitrary corrections and modifications, cf., Hoernle, Osteology, p. 21 (which wrongly indicates the edition of 1879 as the first edn. of Gaṅgādhara, but the one of 1868-71, indicated above does not seem to have been complete; in my copy it has 1,200 pages and ends in course of the XVIIIth Adhyāya of the Sūtrasthāna). Hoernle is mistaken in affirming that Ś. is a mere reproduction of G., but it follows G. quite closely. Manuscript: M. Bibl. Nat. Sanskrit, 1304, copy of a manuscript in Śārada script kept in the Deccan College written by Cordier on a copy of J. The indications in italics are added by us. Cakr. stands for Cakrapāṇidatta’s commentary.

c12.s1.4

¹ According to Cakr., *kalā-guṇa* “property, chiefly favourable, quality”, or *aṃśa* “portion”. The second sense cannot be accepted; it cannot refer to “portions and non-portions of the wind”, although Gaṅgādhara has understood it in this manner (*vātasyāṃśāmyorjñānaṃ*) unless it be said to refer to the minute details concerning the wind or the diverse points of the doctrine of the wind. The former sense is found elsewhere in Caraka and is derived from that of portion, Sūtr., X. 3: *catuṣpadaṃ ṣoḍaśakalaṃ bheṣajamiti bhiṣajo bhāṣante/yaduktaṃ pūrvādhyāye ṣoḍaśaguṇamiti tadbheṣajam*, “Medicine has four feet and sixteen parts”, say the doctors; that which has been said in the preceding Chapter (XI, 9): “possessing sixteen qualities, that is medicine”. Wherefrom *kalā-guṇa* (Cakr.), in the sense that the parts referred to here are qualities; four of the compounder (instruction, etc.), four of drugs (efficacy, etc.) four of the compounder (ability of preparing the drugs, etc.) and four of the patient (memory, obedience for prescriptions, etc.) One can, therefore, translate “qualities and defects of the wind”, or “that which the wind has or does not have as qualities”. But *kalā* also denotes the arts and techniques (ordinarily said to number 64, which is 4³ when 16 is 4²; *kalā* is habitually in relation with the number 16, the *kalā* or the divisions of the lunar disc are 16 in number, the year has 16 parts, *Brh.-up.*, I, 5, 14; similarly the man, *Chānd.-up.* VI, 7, 1; *Praśnopa.*, VI, 1, 6). It can also refer to that which is done by the wind or that which is not done by the wind, or does the wrong way, of its normal and abnormal functions, therefore the translation given above, which fits better than the other ones is possible in the real context of the chapter.

c12.s1.5

it? or which are the objects that calm it? And how, without having got it, that which lacks both consistency and stability, is it excited by the exciters or calmed by the sedatives? And which are its own actions that it, excited or not, circulates or does not circulate in the body, at the moment when it circulates in the body or outside the body?” [4] *Characteristics of the Wind*: Thereupon Kuśa, of the family of Sāṅkṛtya, said: light, cold, violent, sharp, inconsistent to touch, these are the six properties of the wind.¹ [5] *Exciters of the Wind*: As soon as he heard these words, Kumāraśiras Bharadvāja said: “It is just as the gentleman has observed. These are the properties of the wind; now, the wind is made excited by actions having similar properties and exercised by the drugs of the same type and the virtues of the same kind, because the means of reinforcing the elements are the putting into play of corresponding properties.” [6] *Sedatives of Wind*: As soon as he heard these words, the doctor from Bactria, Kāṅkāyana² said: “It is just as has been observed by the gentleman. These are the things that excite the wind. Thereafter, the contrary ones are the sedatives of the wind, because the antagonist of the exciter is the means of calming the elements”. [7] *Mode of Action of the Exciters and the Sedatives*: As soon as he heard these words, Badiśa Dhāmārgava said: “It is exactly as has been described by the gentleman. These are the sedatives of the excitation of the wind. Also, we are going to explain the way, in which attaining the wind³, which lacks both consistency and stability, the exciters and the sedatives, excite it or calm it. The exciters of the wind are, in truth, things which produce for the organism the bitter, the light, the cold, the violent, the sharp, the inconsistent and the hollow. The wind, having taken up residence in such and such an organism, growing, gets excited.

c12.s1.6

¹ cf., below, (7) where another *ṛṣi* enumerates seven of them. cf. Suśr., Nid., 1, 6, infra.

c12.s1.7

² That is to say, “of the line of the Sogdians”, cf., *supra*, p. 38.

c12.s1.8

³ Gaṅgādhara and others who have followed him, have changed “in reaching it” into “without reaching it” to reproduce the expression used in [3]. The correction is useless as one feels that at the beginning of the conference [3] one might have supposed that the wind could not be reached, because of its inconsistent character, but once the action on similar or opposite properties having been admitted [6] it might have been thought that it could be reached, wherefrom the change of expression.

c12.s1.9.1

The sedatives of the wind are things which produce for the organisms the unctuous, the heavy, the hot, the smooth, the slimy and the sticky. The wind installing itself, circulating in such and such an organism, he is made calm”. [8a] *Functions of the Wind*: As soon as he had heard the right statement of Badiśa, approved by all the ṛṣis, the royal sage Vāryovida¹ said: “Without any doubt it is exactly as has been stated by the gentleman and, in truth, after having adored the wind, we will explain, to the best of our ability, proving by means of observation, inference and comparison², the functions of the wind, excited or not, which circulates or does not circulate in the body, at the moment when it circulates in the body or outside the same. *Nature of the Wind*: The wind is the support of that which retains the chain³, it consists of the breath of the front, of the upward breath, of concentrated breath, of diffused breath, and of low breath.

c12.s1.9.2

*Physiological Functions*: It promotes movements of all types, it puts brakes on the wind and also guides it⁴, this puts in action all the faculties, it is the conveyor of objects of all the faculties, the distributor of all the elements of the organism, which brings about the coherence of the body, it is the promoter of speech, is the matter⁵ of contact and of sound, the basis of the power of hearing and of touch, the source of joy and of liveliness, the kindler of fire, the drier of the elements of troubles⁶, the expulser of impurities, the border of the thick and fine canals, the maker of embryos.¹ It becomes the determining cause of the prolongation of life when it is not excited. [8b] *Pathological Functions*: But when, in truth, it is excited in the body, it inflicts on the body all sorts of derangements to the detriment of the forces of colour, of well-being and longevity. It puts in tumult² the mind, attacks all the faculties, throws down the embryos, provokes malformation, makes it go on for too long a time, engenders fright, chagrin, bewilderment, sadness, loquacity and blocks the breaths.

c12.s1.9.3

[8c] *Normal Cosmic Functions*: Of the one which is in its natural state, the functions, when it circulates in the world, are, in truth, the following, i.e., the support of the earth³, the flaming up of the fire⁴, the regulation of the continuous course of the sun, of the moon and of the totality of the stars and the planets, the formation of clouds⁵, the emission of waters, the putting into movement of the course of water, the production of flowers and fruits, the piercing of that which pierces, the division of the seasons, of the elements, the determination of the quantity and the aspect of elements⁶, the elaboration of grain⁷, the growth of cereals, the dryness and the secondary drying up⁸ and the tranformation of that which is not transformed.

c12.s1.9.4

[8d] *Perturbing Cosmic Functions*: Of the one that is excited, the functions, when it circulates in the worlds, are, in sooth, the following, i.e., the levelling up of the summits of the mountains, the uprooting of trees, the overflowing of the oceans, the rising of the lakes, the pushing back of the courses of water, the trembling of the earth, the swelling of the clouds, the production of the mist, of thunder, of dust, of sand, of fish, of frogs, of serpents, of caustics, of blood, of stones, and of lightning¹, the destruction of six seasons, the clearing² of cereals, the calamities³ for beings, the complete destruction of existences, the production of clouds, of the sun, of fire and of the wind which bring to an end the four yugas of the world. [8e] Divine Nature of the Wind: It is the blessed and the imperishable source of beings⁴, the author of the existence and non-existence, the ordinator of well-being and of troubles, the death, Yama⁵, the tamer, the Lord of creatures, Aditi⁶, the one which does everything, the one that has all the forms, the one that goes everywhere, the director of all the concatenatious, the atom between existences, penetrating Viṣṇu, who trsaverses the worlds; yes, the wind is the Blessed one”.

c12.s1.9.5

[9] Objection: Having heard Vāryovida, Mārīci said: “Even though it is so, what is the relationship of this notion, either for the expression or for the doctrine, with the science of the medical man or whether this doctrine, which has just now been stated, does really concern the science of the medical-man”.⁷ [10] The Medical and General Interest of the Doctrine: Vāryovida replied, “The medical-man, does not consider that the wind possesses an extreme force, has an extreme violence, that it acts very promptly and brooks no delay when it is forcefully excited, what precautions he will take, having prepared himself thoroughly, to protect from the very beginning, to forestall, fearing loss of time. The praise of the wind made in this sense is, besides, worthwhile for health, for increasing the forces and for good mien, for the acme of extreme longevity.

c12.s1.9.6

[11] *Physiological Rôle of the Fire*: Mārīci said: “It is fire which, inside the organism, incorporated into bile¹, excited or not, renders things good or bad, i.e., digestion, absence of digestion, vision, absence of vision, measure of and its lack as regards warmth, and colour of the normal state and that of the abnormal one, heroism and pusillanimity, anger, joy, aberration, serenity and other pairs (of the opposite) beginning with these ones.” [12] *Physiological Role of the Aqueous Element*: Having heard the words of Mārīci, Kāpya said, “It is Soma which, in the organism, incorporated into phlegm, excited or not, renders things good or bad, i.e., firmness, laxity, plethora, thinness, softness, virility, powerlessness, knowledge, ignorance, consciousness, aberration and other pairs (of the opposites) beginning with these ones.” [13] *Synthetic Conclusion of Ātreya*: Having heard the remarks of Kāpya, the blessed Punarvasu Ātreya said, “All of you, gentlemen, have said the right thing except that your remarks have been exclusive. All, in sooth, the wind, the bile and phlegm, in normal state, make man, with his faculties intact, full of vigour, good mien and in good health; thus he manages to live a long life, just as morals, interests and pleasures, rightly practised make man attain the utmost happiness in this world.

c12.s1.9.7

But rendered abnormal, they take him into the abyss of adversity, just as three seasons, rendered abnormal, lead the world to calamity during their respective periods.” [14] *Conclusion*: All the *ṛṣis* approved this discourse of the blessed Ātreya, and were glad thereof.¹ [15] And there is (a verse) on this subject: “Hearing this discourse of Ātreya, all approved (it), and the *ṛṣis* were glad like gods hearing the words of Indra”. [16] Verse on the above: *Résumé*: The six properties, the cause of two types², the multiple function, that which also appertains to the wind, the quadruple³ function respectively that of phlegm and of bile, [17] the opinion which is of the great *ṛṣis* and that of Punarvasu all this, a propos of the functions and disorders of the wind, has been presented.

c12.s1.10

¹ Or Vāyorvida, “One knowing the wind”, *lectio facilior* which differs from the preceding one by the displacement of only the *repha* written over the syllable *yo* to the syllable *vi*. The aberrant reading of M denotes “knower of that which has reference to the three properties” (of Nature according to the Sāṃkhya philosophy).

c12.s1.11

² The three measures-criteria (*pramāṇas*) enumerated are those which are habitually recognised in the Nyāya philosophy, minus the revealed word (*śabda*), not considered here, except in S, which adds its equivalent, the teaching (*upadeśa*). The reading of M and that of the variant indicated by H, which comprise observation, inference and teaching correspond to the theory of Sāṃkhya. The text has, therefore, been modified respectively by the advocates of Nyāya and Sāṃkhya.

c12.s1.12

³ The chain (of weaving) is the body (*Cakr.: tantram śarīram*), that which supports the chain corresponds to the joints (*Cakr.: sandhi*). One may, thus, understand *tantrayantra* as the “machine of the body”.

c12.s1.13

⁴ Cakr. explains: “the one which puts brakes on the mind, which puts itself movement when the object is not desired and is the guide of the mind when the object is desired.”

c12.s1.14

⁵ Cakr.: *prakṛti kāraṇam*, “*prakṛti*—instrumental cause.”

c12.s1.15

⁶ Cakr.: *doṣasaṃśoṣaṇaḥ—śarīrakleda-saṃśoṣaṇaḥ*, “drier of the doṣas—drier of the humours of the body”.

c12.s1.16

¹ Cakr.: *bhettā karttaitacca śarīrotpatti-kāle*, "borer, maker and that at the moment of body-formation".

c12.s1.17

² Or variant, *vyāvarttayati*, "it throws upside down".

c12.s1.18

³ *lit.*, "of the one that supports". The use of expressions of this type is the mark of a certain *finesse*.

c12.s1.19

⁴ *lit.*, "of the flaming one".

c12.s1.20

⁵ K.: "of the intelligences", bad reading due to the easy confusion between *gha* and *dha* in Nāgarī.

c12.s1.21

⁶ Cakr.: *mānam parimānam samsthānam ākṛtis tayor vyaktir abhivyaktih kāranamiti yāvat*, "mānam is the quantity; samsthānam, the aspect; of these two it is the vyakti, the manifestation, i.e., the instrumental cause."

c12.s1.22

⁷ Cakr.: *abhisamskāro'nkura-jananaśaktih*, "*abhisamskāra*, the germinative power".

c12.s1.23

⁸ Ś. K.: the drying of humidity; M.G.: the drying of the dry one (commentary of G.: drying of things which are a little humid, *vikledahīnānām upaśosanam*). Cakr.: *avikledah pākakālādarvāg aviklinnatvam upaśosanam ca pākena yavādīnām, ārdrānām eva vikledapośosanam*, "*avikleda*, absence of humidity before the movement of maturity and *upaśosanam*, secondary drying up because of the maturity of the humidity of unripe barley, etc." One should thus understand that it is the cause of the general drying up and of the drying up of the ripening cereals.

c12.s1.24

¹ Cakr. does not comment upon the expressions between “thunder” and “lightning”, probably because he did not think them to be subject to confusion but, since they constitute an hetroclite enumeration inserted accidentally between “thunder” and “lightning” they appear to have been interpolated after the editing of the commentary of Cakr., M. adds “thunder”.

c12.s1.25

² Cakr.: asaṅghāto ’nutpādo ’nupacayo vā, “asaṅghāta, non-production and non-abundance”. Saṅghāta is, properly speaking, density.

c12.s1.26

³ Cakr.: upasargo mārakādiprādurbhāvaḥ, “upasarga, appearance of pests, etc”.

c12.s1.27

⁴ Or, “of the elements”; cf., Gayadāsa on Suśr., Nid., 1, 6, infra.

c12.s1.28

⁵ The god of death.

c12.s1.29

⁶ The Vedic goddess “without links”.

c12.s1.30

⁷ M., Ś., G.: “Is it made in consideration of the science of the medical man?”

c12.s1.31

¹ Cakr.: *pittāntaragata iti vacanena śarīre jvālādi yuktavahniniṣedhena pittoṣmarūpasya vahneḥ sadbhāvaṃ darśayati na tu pittādabhedaṃ pittenāgnimāndyasya grahaṇyādhyaye vakṣyamāṇatvāt tathā pittaharasya sarpiṣo'gni-vardhanatvenoktavāt*. “By the expression, ‘incorporated in the bile’, is specified the real nature of fire in the body in the form of bile and heat, as it is impossible that fire in the body may have flames, etc., but it is distinguished from bile by the fact that in the chapter on chronic diarrhoea mention is made of a reduction of fire by bile and also following what is said about [medicine with the base of] ghee which destroys bile by increasing the fire”. The first passage which thus puts fire and bile in antagonism is *Cik.*, XV, 63 (in *Ś.*: XIX, 63): *pittam...agnim āplāvayat hanti jalaṃ taptam ivānalam*, “the bile... inundating the (digestive) fire destroys it as hot water destroys fire”. But this implies that if bile is not fire, it is like hot water and therefore it contains an igneous element. The second passage is *Cik.*, XV, 196: *parīkṣyāmam śarīrasya dīpanam snehasamyutam/dīpanam bahupittasya tiktam madhura-samyutam*, “Having observed the crudeness (absence of digestion by cooking) of the body, an enflaming (medicine) containing (some) fat (is beneficial), if the body has much of bile, the (beneficial) enflaming (medicine) is one having the pungent along with the sweet one.” The two passages belong to the latter part of *Caraka-saṃhitā*, added by Dṛḍhabala.

c12.s1.32

¹ This final formula reminds us of the one which regularly ends the Buddhist Sūtras, “Thus spake the Blessed one; satisfied the... (listeners) were glad of the Blessed one”:

c12.s1.33

² Cakr.: *dvidvidho heturiti vātaprakopahetur vātapraśamahetuḥ*, “Cause of two types, cause of the excitation of the wind, cause of the calming down of the wind”.

c12.s1.34

³ Quadruple, because it differs according as it is in the body or in the world and whether it is excited or not.

c12.s1.35

COLOPHON:—In the manual of Agniveśa, re-edited by Caraka, in the section of verses⁴, the twelfth chapter, entitled, “Functions and Disorders of the Wind”, is finished.

c12.s1.36

⁴ Or *Sūtrasthāna*, “section of the sūtras” (*lit.*, place of the Sūtras).

c12.s1.37

The discussion of the *ṛṣis* gathered together shows clearly the various tendencies which have dominated the ancient physio-cosmological speculations of Indians and whose classical theory is the synthesis summarised by Ātreya. He attributed the main rôle in the organism to an unique element, wind, fire or water, the last one of these, water, is represented here by soma, the cosmic liquid *par excellence*. This inevitably recalls the attitude of the Ionian Physiologists seeking the primordial element and finding the same, Thales in water, Anaximenes in air or Heraclitus in fire. In all the cases, the effort aims at supplying a purely physical explanation of the universe and of

c12.s1.38

idam avocad bhagavān āttamanāḥ te
...bhagavato bhāṣitaṃ abhinandanniti;
in Pāli; idaṃ avoca bhagavā, attamanā te
...bhagavato bhāsitaṃ abhinandun ti.

c12.s1.39

the organism, both conceived as having the same nature. In the opinion of Vāryovida, where wind is assimilated to an entire series of gods, indeed to the Blessed One, to the supreme God, the point of view cannot be held to be mystic, in spite of the protests of Mārīci who feels that the assimilation of the wind to the gods comes out of the framework of speculations that are really medical. The Indian gods in question are not really supernatural beings, powers which freely govern Nature by placing themselves above it. They are included in it; they are eminent therein, but only as participants. Besides, the wind, as it is described by Vāryovida, is nothing but the material element known as such, and when Vāryovida identifies it with the gods, he does not substitute the natural notion of the wind with a mystic representation but, on the contrary, he furnishes a materialistic interpretation of the being of the gods and aims to be fully rational, but not entirely concrete. Our text does not describe in detail the physical action of the breath inside the organism. The ṛṣis who discuss the wind or breath judge that it is, in each movement or change, the activating force, but do not see in each case the mode of action of this force. Their conceptions were too vague to be able to concretise themselves as physical representations and a deepened observation would have destroyed them immediately instead of making them more precise. In any case, the consideration of the properties enabled them to materially render the account of the action of wind in the organism without any necessity of having to make it physically precise. From the fact that breath entered the organism, it followed that it introduced therein its properties. When calm it put them to work in normal manner: excited, it disurbed the organism by means of their excesses as also by its own mechanical action. One could, therefore, without having to specify the concrete process of the latter, understand its normal or disturbing functions by referring them to the play of its properties in an abstract manner.

c12.s1.40

The corresponding text of Suśruta will give us more details on the pneumatic pathology of Āyurveda. But beforehand, the comparison of the text of Bhela, thought to have integrally reproduced the teaching of Ātreya, like that of Caraka, will enable us to go back to the doctrine in the state which constituted the common fund of the teachings of Bhela and Caraka.

Bhela, Sutrasthana, XVI

c12.s2.1

¹ This text is known through an unique manuscript (Tanjore, No. 10773 of Burnell, become No. 11085 of the catalogue of P.P.L. Sastri, Srirangam, 1933, p. 7410). The transcription of this manuscript has been edited by Asutosh Mukerjee, University of Calcutta, *Journal of the Department of Letters*, Vol. VI, Calcutta, 1921, pp. 26-8 (for this passage). This edition is called E, it gives within brackets the conjectural readings to restore the text, proposed by Ananta Krishna Shastri. They are reproduced here with the sign, *conj.* or *E. conj.* A certain number among them accords with the readings of N. (below) but are less suitable. Three other transcriptions of the same are found in the Cordier collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale: Sanskrit 1183, copy in Nāgarī of Pt. C. Krishnayya, p. 19., l. 1. to 20, l. 1, 6 (N.) *Sanskrit* 1183, copy Telinga; p. 43, l. 5 to 46, l. 8 (T); *Sanskrit*, 1184, Latin transcription in the hand of Cordier not used here because copied from the preceding two.

c12.s2.2

[1] “We will now explain all that relates to the functions and the disorders of the wind,” says the blessed Ātreya.² [2] “Which is the chief element of trouble, and the least important one?³”, one asks. Having saluted Ātreya the black, the great ṛṣis gave a discourse. [3] *Physiological Functions of the Wind*: Someone has said concerning the same, the main effect: As long as the wind subsists which decomposes⁴ nourishment, man lives. [4] It is the wind which, in sooth, causes the semen to fall in the woman. The wind decomposes the menstrual blood of the woman. Because of the wind woman becomes sterile. [5] Neither men nor women are sterile (by nature): either, in the receptacle, the wind is cold and has dried the sperm, [6] or the wind has diminished the sperm and the sperm is suppressed by the wind. All that is seen, blinked and moved, [7] and the diseases of the black (?), in women, it is assuredly thus that they occur. It is because of the wind that the hunchbacked, the crippled, the lame and persons suffering from lumbago, [8] as also those having atrophied limbs or having limbs in excess exist, along with others of the same type. *Cosmic Functions of the Wind*: The inertia of animated beings and the silences of the rivers⁵, [9] the quaking of the earth also, is due to the wind. Steam is produced under the influence of the wind, from steam is born the cloud, [10] from the cloud escapes water from where are born the germs; or the thunder issues therefrom(?). One must know that the force of the group of stars and that of lightning comes from the wind. Thanks to wind, the fire, the husband of the holy oblations, burns. [12] Because of the wind the rivers flow and reach the earth. *Divine Nature of the Wind:* The semen spread in the matrix is affected by the wind of properties. It can destroy bile¹ and phlegm. With² one of them, the wind, excited, disperses itself in the body. *Varieties of Organic Breath:* Thus are distinguished the diffused breath, the breath on high, the concentrated breath, [15] the breath below and the breath of the front, according to its multiple specialisations in corporeal beings. The diffused breath, which ensures its own horizontal extension, regularises the breath on high, [16] the breath of the front ensures the placement of the breath below but starts, among corporeal beings³, the raising of the concentrated breath. It holds also under its dependence, [17] the faculties, the spirit and the soul of the beings, of the corporeal beings. Considered as special, another wind is called "breath below".⁴ [18] Drying and marching, and also thought to be without feet, the wind is said to be the principal element among the five elements. [19] These four are linked with the wind; the wind is everywhere, always. From the wind results the emission of the wind, of the sperm and of the excrements, [20] and it is from the cooking of that which

c12.s2.3

² Reproduces 1 and 2 of Caraka.

c12.s2.4

³ E.: this is an element of trouble which [in its] least [state] surpasses a hundred.

c12.s2.5

⁴ Literally, “destroyed”, that is to say, decomposed, which is a way of representing digestion.

c12.s2.6

⁵ E.: “The inertia of animated beings, sudden and fixed”, The conjuncture causing to disappear the mention of rivers is not necessary, because

c12.s2.7

¹ E.: empoisoned bile.

c12.s2.8

² *ādāya* of the following verse, replaced in E. according to an unlikely conjecture, by *āhāra*, "nourishment", which will oblige us to understand that the wind is excited by nourishment. This interpretation is possible but it will oblige us to make *anyataram* as a complement of *hanyād* and to supply "or" after "bile and phlegm". The case envisaged by the text as it is presented here is the one where the wind is associated with bile or phlegm, a frequent case according to the classical doctrine.

c12.s2.9

³ According to the reading in E.; "puts the corporeal being into action".

c12.s2.10

⁴ Following another theory one should, undoubtedly, understand that *apāna* (moreover often opposed alone to *prāṇa* in Vedic texts) is considered as a type of wind distinct from *prāṇa* and possessing an autonomy equal to that of *prāṇa*.

c12.s2.11

the action of the wind on the rivers is mentioned a little farther (12) and in Caraka, 8d. The silent rivers are a sort of pendant to inert beings. The wind, the force producing noise and movement, stops them when it suspends its action.

c12.s2.12

is eaten that results the function of the breath below¹; this is what is taught. The breath of the front comforts the elements; it is considered that the breath of the front is life. [21] The diffused breath is, in the body², the movement and the closing and opening of eyelids. That which, besides, in a creature, goes on high is that which is moved by the breath on high [22] [which produces³] sneezing, hiccough, cough, sigh and speech.⁴ That which swells the rectum and the body in all the ways, [23] the wind which is held therein is called “breath below”. For such reasons and for others which make us see the reality, we will characterize in the corporeal being the wind to be the main element.” Thus spake the blessed Ātreya.

c12.s2.13

¹ According to the graphically plausible correction of E. conj.: “it is the cooking of that which is eaten, that is the function of the breath below”. This sense, in any case, will not be in accord with the ordinary doctrine according to which it is samāna which kindles the digestive fire cooking the aliments, whereas apāna ensures the expulsion of the excreta as has exactly been said here. It will, therefore, be better to translate the text without correcting it and to understand that it is the cooking of the aliments which gives rise to excretary function of the apāna, because it is the cooking which produces the excreta, thus furnishing the matter on which apāna exerts itself.

c12.s2.14

² E.: the movement of the body.

c12.s2.15

³ A verb is supposed by the accusatives, or they should be corrected as nominatives.

c12.s2.16

⁴ E. conj.: the syncope.

c12.s2.17

COLOPHON:—In Bhela, sixteenth chapter.

c12.s2.18

This passage of Bhela differs externally, in so far as length and presentation are concerned, from the corresponding chapter of Caraka as the latter is in the form of a dialogue in prose and the former a much briefer enunciation in verse. These differences, however, cannot suffice to weaken the tradition which says that both Bhela and Agniveśa have preserved in their texts the teachings received from Ātreya. These differences could be due to the intervention of Caraka who revised the book of Agniveśa. Moreover two versions of the same course by different listeners can considerably differ from each other. The fact that the names of the traditional masters of Āyurveda, such as Ātreya, Agniveśa and Caraka are suspected of being more legendary than historical, does not prevent the two texts from agreeing as regards the basic part of the pneumatic doctrine presented by them as having been taught or approved by Ātreya. If it is not at all sure but only possible that the inventor of this doctrine should have been really called Ātreya, is it not at least doubtful that it had existed at a time before the composition of the Saṃhitās of Bhela and Caraka? The considerable differences in editing which appear when the two texts are compared prove precisely that neither of them can be considered as an imitation of the other and that the general concordance between their teachings must be due to a common source of inspiration. We find definitely in both Bhela and Caraka, the notion of the identity of the atmospheric wind as also of the organic breath which, whether in nature or in the body, is the cause of all the activities, the divine cause, but whose divinity consists in its material power of being the element of nature.

c12.s2.19

The text of Suśruta which follows, again develops and with more details, the same theory although according to tradition, it does not belong to the same school. This pertains to the origin, according to the common appearance, of the two great schools of Āyurveda and guarantees thereby the antiquity of the theory which necessarily pre-existed in its diverse but concordant expressions.

Susruta, Nidanasthana, I

c12.s3.1

¹ This text has been established following the texts mentioned hereunder: Madhusūdangupta, Calcutta, 1835 (M.). Jivananda Vidyasagara, 3rd. edn. Calcutta, 1889 (J.). Kālīprasanna Kavīsekhara, Calcutta, 1898, in Bengali script (K.) with the commentary of Dalhaṇa (DK.) and Bengali translation; Yādavaśarman (Jadavji Trikamji), 2nd. edn. Bombay, 1931 (Y.) with the commentary of Dalhaṇa (DY.). The commentary of Dalhaṇa (D.), the Nibandhasaṃgraha, is quoted following the preceding editions as also the separate edition of Jivananda Vidyasagara. 3rd. edn., Calcutta, 1891 (DJ.). The Nyāyacandrikā of Gayadāsa has been preferred and for the same the MSS. of the Cordier Collection, copied from the MSS. of Bikaner Library (No. 1762) by Umeshcandra Gupta, Bibl. Nat. Sanskrit, 1177, p. 1-37 (G.) G. gives variations noted here as G. var. A number of the explanations of Dalhaṇa are taken from Gayadāsa; that is why the latter, an early commentator, has been followed before Dalhaṇa. The verses are numbered only in J. and Y., Y. adding a second phrase after the first one of introduction, his numbering thus differs by one from that of J. In K. the numbering is by group of the verses of the beginning.

c12.s3.2

[1] We will now explain the etiology of the diseases of the wind.² [2] Suśruta questioned Dhanvantari, the best of those who supported the Order, born with ambrosia¹, after having saluted his feet. [3] “O, the best among those who talk, tell me the localisation, the function and the ills of the wind in a natural state and disturbed by excitants”. [4] Having heard his discourse, the best of the doctors replied: *General Theory of the Wind*: “The Being existing by himself, that Blessed one is, it is said, the wind. [5] Since it depends only on itself, existed perpetually and also because it goes everywhere, it is for all the objects the universal soul to whom the entire world renders homage.² [6] It is he, the efficient cause of the beings³, in their conservation, their birth and their destruction. Not manifest but with its action manifest⁴, it is sharp, cold, bitter.⁵ [7] It goes horizontally, has two properties⁶, and lots of passion.⁷ Its power is inconceivable, it is the conductor of the elements of troubles⁸, it shines among the multitude of ills.⁹ [8] It acts promptly, circulates constantly. It has its seat in the intestines and in the rectum. Teach me its characteristics when it circulates in the body. [9] Normal Functions of the Wind in the Body: When it is not excited, the wind ensures the equilibrium of impurities, of the organic elements and of fire, the entering into contact (the sensation) in the domains (of the faculties)¹ and the normal occurrence of various activities. [10] Just as fire is divided into five as regards names, as regards seats and its own functions, similarly is the wind divided, which has only one denomination, one localisation and one activity.³ [11] The breath of the front and the breath on high, the concentrated breath, the diffused breath and the breath below are the five winds which, when they keep their places, keep the corporeal being going. [12] The wind which circulates in the body is called the breath of the front, prāṇa⁴, it sustains the body, makes nourishment enter inside and supports the breaths.⁵

c12.s3.3

² Y. adds: thus says the blessed Dhanvantari.

c12.s3.4

¹ Reference to the legend which places the birth of Dhanvantari incarnated here in the king Divodāsa, in the churning of the ocean which also produced ambrosia.

c12.s3.5

² J., Var. of Cordier . . . the ancients have rendered homage.

c12.s3.6

³ Or “of the elements”. G. justifiably makes a *rapprochement* between Car., *Sūtr.*, XII, 8e (above) and leaves the choice between the two interpretations of—*bhūta*, “beings” or “elements” (p. 8, 1.13: *bhūtānām prāṇinām mahābhūtānām vā caturnām*).

c12.s3.7

⁴ D. *avyakto’ dṛśyamūrtih | vyaktakarmā prakaṭakriyah*: “*avyakta*, of invisible form, *vyaktakarmā*, of manifest action”.

c12.s3.8

⁵ cf. Car., *Sūtr.*, XII, 4 and 7, which is reproduced by G., by reading; —*rūkṣaḥ śīto laghuḥ sūkṣma calo viśadaḥ karaiti*, “bitter, cold, light, subtle, mobile, inconsistent, sharp”.

c12.s3.9

⁶ G., p. 10, 1.4, DY.: *dviguṇa iti śabdasparṣaguṇaḥ*, “has two properties”=has as properties sound and touch (that is to say, those of being heard and felt). DJ. and DK.: *śitasparśa*, “the cold and the touch” (bad reading).

c12.s3.10

⁷ This refers to the property “passion” (*rajoguṇa*) which the Sāṃkhya recognises in Nature as a specially active property. The expression amounts to saying. “it has lots of activity”, cf., *Śatapatha-brāh.*, VIII, 7,2,10: *dviguṇo bahulataraḥ* (in an entirely different context).

c12.s3.11

⁸ Of the impurities of the body or of the three elements of trouble, but in this last case it should be admitted with those who stand for this interpretation, that it is its own conductor because it is one of those three (G. and D.).

c12.s3.12

⁹ One could simply translate: “it is the king of the multitude of ills” in accordance with the Bengali version (*vyādhigaṇera rājā*) but G. and D. do not accept that *rāt* be taken here as a synonym of *rājan*. (G., p. 11, 1. 1: *nāyaṃ rāṭśabdo rāja [Corr.—’ja] paryāyaḥ;—DY.: na tu [DJ. & and DK. have by mistake nanu] rāṭśabdo rājaparyāyaḥ; G. explains: rogasamūhe rājati, D.: rājate śobhate*.

c12.s3.13

¹ G.: "the entering into contact with the objects of faculties, the disorganisation of faculties, of the organic elements and of fire", that is to say, on one side it closes the circuit on sensation, makes the feeling subject attain the objects falling under the control of sensorial faculties and on the other that it is the antagonist or the regulator of the disturbing elements of the organism.

c12.s3.14

² G. and D. specify that it refers to five forms of the fire in the body and enumerate them. They add that it does not refer, as desire some, to five ritual fires.

c12.s3.15

³ The suffix *maya* here possesses an abstractive value, cf., *vānmaya*, "oratorial art", exactly "that which consists of words" (L. Renou, *Grammaire Sanskrite*, Sect. 201). However G. and D. understand: *kriyā-āmayaiḥ kriyānnapācanādikayā āmayenāmlapākādinā*, "as regards function, i.e., the cooking of nourishment, etc.; as regards disease, that is to say, the acidity, the maturing (excessive combustion), etc." The Bengali translation, seems justifiably, not to follow them (*sei prakāra eka vāyuī nāma sthāna o kriyā*, "similarly the wind, one, as regards names, seats and actions"). The English translation of K.L. Bhishagratna, Calcutta, 1911, Vol. II, p. 3, is too free to judge the interpretation on which it is based. The Latin translator, Fr. Hessler, Erlangen, 1844, Vol. I, p. 169, has understood it as G. and D.

c12.s3.16

⁴ G. p. 13, l. 11, notes that "in another book, the breath of the front is said to be seated in the heart; the breath of the front is in the heart, the breath below in the rectum, the concentrated breath goes in the centre of the umbilic, the breath on high is situated in the region of the throat, the diffused breath goes in all the limbs and the articulations. cf., in fact, *Yogacūḍāmanyupaniṣad*, 23-24, with some difference.

c12.s3.17

⁵ Others than him or simply "Life" which is a usual sense of *prāṇaḥ*. G. p. 13, l. 14: *prāṇāvalambana-vacanena tu hṛdayāvalambanamuktam | prāṇānām viśeṣeṇa hṛdayarmasthititvāt*, "by the expression, support of the heart, because the breaths have their seat principally in the vulnerable point of the heart". G. developes thereafter this interpretation, D. takes up a part of this development. Both of them add a quotation *yathā saindhavo'śvaḥ śaṅkumutpātya dhāvati tadvat prāṇa* (G. adds *anilo*). "Just as a horse of Sind runs off having uprooted its peg, similarly the breath (G. the breath of the front) arrested, escapes at the time of death tearing off all the winds". In D. this quotation is introduced.

c12.s3.18

[13] Troubled, it produced principally affections such as hiccough and panting. The one called the breath on high, superior wind, goes upwards. [14] By means thereof opens out that which has the characteristic of being said, sung, etc...¹ It produces specially the ills which come above the clavicles. [15] The one that circulates in the receptacles of the uncooked and of the cooked², the concentrated breath (samāna), in concert with the fire³, cooks the nourishment and separates the particular substances which are found to be produced thereby. [16] It produces ills such as the tumours, the weakening of the (digestive) fire⁴, diarrhoeaes, etc. The one which circulates in the entire body, the diffused breath (vyāna) acts to bring in its wake the organic sap, [17] and makes perspiration and blood flow and causes the occurring of the gestures of five types⁵ and excited, it provokes chiefly the ills which traverse the entire body. [18] The one that has for seat the receptacle of the cooked (the intestines), the breath below (apāna), it is this wind which, at a convenient moment, brings in its wake the excreta, the urines, the sperm, the embryos and the menses downwards. [19] Excited, it provokes the terrible ills which stay in the bladder and the rectum; but the troubles of the sperm and the urinary ills are produced by the excitation of the diffused breath and of the breath below (associated). [20-21] And, all together, excited, they (the five winds) tear the body undoubtedly.

c12.s3.19

¹ G., D. variant: the domain of that which is said, sung, etc.

c12.s3.20

² The stomach and the intestines.

c12.s3.21

³ Var.: with the help of the fire.

c12.s3.22

⁴ Var.: the tumours, the diarrhoeaes where there is association with fire.

c12.s3.23

⁵ G. and D.: extension, contraction, flexion, recovery, lateropulsion or according to others reported by D.: march, extension, recovery, opening of the eyes and closing of the eyes.

c12.s3.24

I am going to explain below the disturbances provoked by the wind when strongly excited, seated in different places. The wind excited in the receptacles of the uncooked (the stomach) provokes ills such as vomitings, etc.

c12.s3.25

by *yaduktaṃ śrutau*, “it is said in the Veda”; in G. by *yaduktaṃ suśrute*, “it is said in Suśruta”. Cordier in a note in his hand on the MSS. of G. supposes it to refer to an older edition of Suśruta because it is not the practice of the commentator to thus denote the text commented upon by him. But the good reading must be *śrutau* as the quotation is an approximative reproduction of the *Bṛh.-up.*, VI, 1,13.

c12.s3.26

[22] Bewilderment, swoonings, thirst, the gripping of the heart, the point of the side. The one that has its seat in the receptacle of the cooked (the intestines) provokes the noise of the entrails and the sharp pain (colic) in the nombril.¹ [23] Dysuria and constipation, the intestinal occlusion, the suffering at the trifurcation (of the trunk and of the hips). Excited, the wind can produce the death of faculties (sensorial and active) in the ear, etc. [24] That which is found in the skin can provoke bad tint, the quivering, abruptness, sleep (tegumentary insensibility), cooking, pricking, chapping, desquamation. [25] That which has arrived in the blood can provoke ulcers, that which has its seat in the flesh can provoke painful nodosities,—similarly the one that has its seat in the fat can provoke new ulcerous indolent nodosities. [26] That which has attained the vessels can produce lancinating pain, contraction and the plenitude of vessels. That which has attained the tendons can provoke paralysis and shaking, lancinating pain as also convulsion. [27] That which has reached the joints renders them painful and swollen and can provoke the drying of the bones and their fissuration as also lancinating pain, the one that has its seat in them. [28] And when it has attained the marrow, the illness never gets calm; when the wind has attained the sperm, there is an absence of production or there is troubled production. [29] The wind which goes everywhere, covers successively the constitutive elements of the hands, the feet, the head and can attack the entire body of men. [30] The one that goes everywhere provokes paralysis, convulsions, sleep (anaesthesia), swelling and lancinating pains, and mixed (with other elements causing trouble) in the seats that are said to be those of complex ills. [31] The wind that has reached the limbs can provoke innumerable ills. There can be inflammation, heating and swooning when the wind is associated with bile. [32] Cold, swelling and heaviness, when it is enveloped in phlegm.

c12.s3.27

¹ Var.: the sharp pain and the intestinal occlusion.

c12.s3.28

Pricking as by needles, horror of touch (hyperaesthesia) [33] and other disturbances of the bile can occur when the wind is associated with blood. When the breath of the front is enveloped in bile, vomiting takes place and inflammation.

c12.s3.29

appears. [34] When it is enveloped in phlegm, there appear weakness, depression, lassitude and bad mien. When the wind of high is associated with bile: swooning, inflammation, dizziness, lassitude. [35] Absence of transpiration and horripilation, diminished (internal) fire, cold and impotence, when it is enveloped in phlegm.

c12.s3.30

[36] When the concentrated breath is associated with bile, sudation, inflation, burning and swooning. And when it is enveloped in phlegm, excess of phlegm, excreta and urines, horripilation. When the breath of below is associated with bile, there can occur inflammation and burning and (in women) flux of the blood.

c12.s3.31

[37] When it is enveloped in phlegm, heaviness in the lower part of the body. When the diffused blood is enveloped in bile, convulsions, lassitude. [38] All the limbs are heavy and there is the stiffness of the points of bones, (such is) the symptomatology (liṅga) when the diffused breath is enveloped in phlegm and there is also the paralysis of movements. [39]¹ Generally, in delicate persons, in those who take undue amounts of nourishment and live beyond measure, because of excessive fatigue due to women, due to spirituous drinks and exercises which are the paths of ills², [40] following a deviation in the regimen of the seasons and irregular use of fatty bodies, etc., the windy blood gets excited in those who are chaste as also in the corpulent ones. [41] The one who goes with elephants, horses, camels and others, has his wind excited because of the habitual causes (of excitation), because of nourishment of vegetables, etc. pungent, hot, acid and caustic edibles as also because of heatings, etc. (becoming) too habitual. [42] Rapidly the blood gets corrupted and blocks the path of the wind. This wind, immediately rendered violently excited by the blocking of its route, can immediately trouble the blood a great deal. [43] The latter, mixed with the wind, disturbed by its predominance, is called “Windy Blood”. Similarly bile mixed with disturbed blood, disturbed phlegm mixed with disturbed blood. [44] Fearing the touch, suffering from pricking pain and drying up, from sleep (anaesthesia), are the feet because of the windy blood. Because of bile and blood they have a violent inflammation, are extremely hot, have red swelling and are smooth. [45] They are pruriginous, white and cold, swollen, inflated and impotent when the blood is disturbed by phlegm. And the ailments, when the blood is disturbed by all, make manifest in the feet, their individual aspects. [46] As premonitory symptoms, they are soft, perspiring, cold (or) possess opposite characteristics, have a bad colour, a pricking pain, sleep (anaesthesia), heaviness, heat. [47] When it (the blood) has reached the sole of the feet, sometimes also the palm of the hands, like rat-poison¹, it infiltrates the body. [48] When it has spread up to the knees, and when it is an effusion, being fragmented (that is to say, in the form of spread-out spots, petechiae) and when it is accompanied by complications like those of the weakening of the breath and of the flesh, [49] blood can become incurable (or) curable after several years. But when excited wind invades all the vessels, [50] then by a sudden attack it causes lively convulsions all over the body occurring at all moments, and as this convulsion is caused at all times, it is traditionally called "convulsor" (*ākṣepaka*), [51] is called "tension-producer" (*apātānaka*)², the one which makes descend (*pātayati*), by intervals, if the wind associated with phlegm violently occupies the (vessels). [52] The one which makes it hard like a stick is serious, that is the "tension-producer like a stick" (*daṇḍapātānaka*, upright tetanus). When it seizes the jaws very strongly (trismus) use of nourishment becomes difficult. [53] The one that makes the body bend like a bow draws its name from the hardness of the bow (*dhanuḥstambha*). It has its seat in the fingers, in ankles, abdomen, heart, chest and throat. [54] When the wind, impetuous, causes the convulsive expansion of the tendons, (the patient) has his eyes fixed, the jaw rigid, the side twisted (pleurothotonos), and (he) vomits phlegm. [55] When the man is bent like a bow inwards, then the wind, powerful, provokes its "contraction inwards" (emprosthotonos), [56] and if the tendons of outside¹ are found in the expansions it provokes the "outward contraction" (opisthotonos). The experts call incurable the one that causes the chest, the hips and the thighs to incurvate.

First 99 of 179 passages. Read on

Linked texts (12)